You also have to keep media markets in mind. A bad Knicks team is still going to draw more viewers than a great Suns team. Look at the ESPN lineup for the first half of the baseball season, it's all Sox, Yanks and Dodgers.

The past 10 years isn't a bad example, the #1 picks have been Rose, Davis, Griffin, Wall, Irving, Howard, Lebron and Yao. There are some bad picks too like Oden (though had big potential), Bargnanni (wasn't too bad in Toronto, averaging 21/5 while stretching the floor) and Bogut (Bogut was doing well before he got seriously hurt) but overall those are good picks and just got hurt when they actually started to play well, minus Oden.

But in Odens year, number 2 is Durant then Horford and Conley. In bargs year, next is Aldridge then farther down the line is Gay and Roy. In Boguts year theres CP3, DWill, Bynum and Granger. So there is a good chance there as long of getting a good solid future star there.

Obviously i am talking about strictly first picks there because that's what the teams are aiming for however...

I am not up to the draft players but next years is being hyped as if it will be the next 2003 draft, I am not actually sure if it is that deep but if it truly is then I can see why managers are getting wet thinking about those draft places.

As for the Suns bombing, I think it is too late now without it being too obvious. Their record is too good and even when Bledsoe went down, they still managed to win and stay in contention for the playoffs. The team is playing too well for them to all of a sudden start losing w/o anyone noticing it is on purpose unless Dragic goes down. I'm not saying they should go with a trade for a big star either but they seem to be stuck in the middle as I am not sure how many good stars they can get that will lead to a chip or past round 2 in the West.

Personally, I think its insane for the Suns to even think about tanking. For every star in the first round there are more washouts and role players. And at this point they are too far ahead to ever catch up in the tank-o-thon.
More importantly the stench of losing has a way of hanging around. It is so often overlooked but chemistry, emotion, effort, and team culture are all things that really matter to the success of a franchise. Right now they have a ton of picks anyway, if they can add a decent piece with dead weight of an expiring contract, they should absolutely go for it. In two years
Golden State went from a free agent wasteland to a destination where a legit star took less money to play.
The Suns have a hot shit point guard in a point guard driven league, a good coach, money, and youth. If they can make noise in the playoffs things could turn around very quickly for them.

I personally was shaky on the details so I never understood why stern, the commissioner vetoed the trade. but of course, the hornets were owned by the league at the time and as owner, stern rejected it soon after 3 teams came to agreement. some speculate stern vetoed CP3 trade to maximize team price come sale time

in hindsight, the hornets would have received a lot of talent:

Lamar Odom from the Lakers, and Kevin Martin, Luis Scola and Goran Dragic from the Rockets

Heat claimed they had absolutely no interest in him, which kinda makes sense, given Oden. Backup center is the Pacers biggest weakness (and backup 4). While Hibbert is a better defender than Bynum, a healthy Bynum is twice the offensive player Hibbert is. Hibbert is also very "lumbering", if a team turns a series against them into a race up and down the court, or has a big that Hibbert has to come out to the 3 point line to defend, Bynum would become a better option in that scenario. Or at least an option that can play 20 minutes in the game without downgrading the lineup.

I think what most are saying that the locker room is a close knit of a family enough to withstand whatever is wrong with Bynum. David West and Stephenson will likely smack him around if he fucks up too much.

Also, Clevelands locker rooms just seems like a huge mess right now and the GM is close to being fired because he just lets everything go and has no control, so maybe, just maybe not 100% of the fault is on Bynum? Maybe just 98%.